Trait 1: Responsive
ENVIRONMENTS FOR TRANSFORMATION
With ‘inclusive’ being a global driver in recent years, we’re seeing its expanded new variation come to life with greater depth and in new dynamic forms.
This is a shift from the era of diversity as a ‘check the box’ initiative, as defined by Deloitte Insights in a study on what it takes for workers to thrive. People are increasingly demanding high transparency and autonomy, and this goes ‘beyond’ diversity within communities. This is about each individual feeling heard and respected.
At the core of this movement is a responsiveness of exchange between consumer and brand, where consumers are given actual agency and control over an output. The individual choses to impact on the product or experience, which then in turn pings back.
Over the past decade in Web, we’ve fully embraced Responsive, using fluid grids and flexible content to shape online space, making highly adaptable to each user (and to each device). A similar thinking is now applied to physical brand space and experiences. Retail settings are responding directly to individual needs, with engaging and empowering new levels of customization.
The new customizable
“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Winston Churchill
In current times of transformation, this needs to be a reciprocal process. We’re aware that built environments have a direct impact on our mental and physical state (more on this in Trait 2), and today we ask for this relationship to be one of continuous exchange. We shape our buildings, they shape us, and then we shape back again. This is an evolution from immersive, where we literally step into an experience, towards transformative design, where experiences and environments respond seamlessly to our needs and choices.
YOUR choices shape YOUR future.
Brands are putting a lot more ownership and responsibility into the hands of the consumer, making each individual feel their journey is one-of-a-kind.
Open early 2017 in Berlin, the pop-up by Adidas ‘Knit for You’, offered a personalized retail experience relying entirely on the presence and interaction of the customer in ‘real’ space. Visitors were invited to design their own merino-wool sweater, knitted to their exact needs and size. The wearer was in full control, using high tech personalization tools such as body scanners and sensors detecting hand gestures. Once the design and size was ready, hitting ‘print’ sent the bespoke sweater to a row of digital knitting machines. With the process taking just a couple of hours, this case illustrates Adidas’ ambition to empower individuals, responding exactly to what you want, when you want it. This space is also a clear indicator that brands are testing new (often high tech) ways to shape open and transparent environments. Focus is on process, and far removed from product (we will expand on this in Trait 3, coming soon).
“We need more than just stuff. We need opportunities to be collaborators in experimenting with new ways to craft how our future works, and what it looks like.” adidasknitforyou.com
The importance of agency
The ambition to create highly unique journeys through space, is one that we’ve seen especially within participatory theatre over the past decade. Wild concepts push the immersive angle to new extents, where it’s about individuals feeling they have an active and purposeful part to play within a process.
Audiences report back saying these experiences have been nothing short of life-changing; Each environment more extreme, intense and intricately crafted than the one before. With phenomenal detail, The Waldorf Project has been said to redefine the human experience, manipulating all senses, and incorporating sensory technologies where the environment responds directly to each guest. In a similar vein, but less high-tech, ‘passengers’ on the You Me Bum Bum Train in London, go through a series of highly absurd life scenarios. One by one, each individual journeys through and plays the lead role in this hyper personalized performance.
True architects of experiences, Londoners Bompas & Parr, strive to push human imagination, creating mashups of science, food and multi-sensory design. Calling themselves culinographers (culinary + pornography), the design duo work with brands as well as individual clients, incorporating new digital tools into their environments - such as experimenting with AI dinner parties and mixed reality events. These performances showcase environments where the individual is given control and agency through a momentary experience.
An example of Responsive Design applied to more permanent architecture, is Winner of Best Use of Light at Frame Awards 2018, Jian Li Ju Theatre. Prior to arriving, visitors are given a time, a location and a number. The entrance door is hidden at the back of an antique furniture emporium, and once inside, visitors descend a dark, dramatically lit stairwell and take a seat in a white minimal waiting room. When time, each participant enters a small changing room, before journeying through the theatre as an active player with own lines to learn and costumes to wear.
Hospitality that listens to you
The hotel sector is equally looking to reimagine its offerings to make each visit highly customizable. This goes beyond creating a space where people want to stay; it involves having a system where people can control and shape their unique travel experience.
Just opened, CityHub, is a hotel concept aimed at young travelers (aged 20–35), who want and expect personalized travel experiences and unique insider knowledge. Each guest is equipped with wristbands, allowing them check-in, pour themselves a beer, and so on. Through a CityHub app, the guests are connected 24/7 to local hosts who suggest events and hot spots around the city. The app gives you control over the futuristic looking sleeping units by adjusting the mood lighting, setting the alarm clock and streaming music.
Also redefining travel, Jo & Joe is a new hotel concept created by AccorHotels’ Innovation Lab and backed by extensive research on the expectations of Generation Y. With its ‘open house’ concept, Jo & Joe embraces an attitude of sharing and spontaneity, inviting both guests and locals to treat the hotel as extended living rooms. The communal areas flow seamlessly from indoors to outdoors, with furniture chosen for its mobility and flexibility, and always with something going on — be it a concert, a yoga class or a creative workshop. It’s first destination is in the French surf destination of Hossegor, developed in collaboration with surf brands Quicksilver and Roxy.
Responsive brand space
The demand for spaces that respond directly to you in the moment, spreads across hospitality and cultural, as well as retail and brand space. Nike is an obvious pioneer when it comes to customizable services responding to the actions and needs of each individual. The Nike+ Basketball Trial Zone, which can be experienced in both New York and Beijing, includes a half-court arena with a gaming engine that provides real-time, on-screen feedback for participants’ 9-minute drills, which are guided by a trained, in-store basketball athlete. This example of ‘Responsive’ shows how Nike is exploring new directions in design and merchandising, putting the consumer quite literally in the game, testing the shoes whilst being the heart of the activity.
Winner of this years Frame Award’s ‘Best Use of Technology’ is a collaboration between Sony Music Communications Japan and Moment Factory. A highly responsive exhibition told the story of ‘Washako’, meaning traditional and local Japanese food. Guests were both educated and entertained, as they were led through a series of installations inspired by culinary processes (grilling, boiling, etc). Through the use of sensors and lasers, the environment appeared to be shifting and shaping in response to the visitor’s behaviors.
Although both these environments are super responsive, questions can be raised around how long term the impact is. The opportunity for brands and companies is to balance momentary experiences as these with offerings that become more intertwined with our everyday. The study by Cohn & Wolfe, also mentioned in the intro, shows that for customers to define a brand as authentic this requires daily, real-life reminders.
In it for the long run
Technological advancements are important enablers in the process of creating responsive environments. Though as we will also see with the ‘Natural’ trait, it is important this feels as genuine as possible and in no way superfluous. Brands are reacting to this by creating new types of destinations that embed into our daily lives, and that turn digital to our advantage. Shifting focus from the retail transaction and pure product, these spaces give back over longer with access to a wealth of ideas and inspiration.
With it’s Copenhagen-based research lab Space10, Ikea has managed to turn perceptions around from a label of mass production, to an idea engine pro-actively testing more sustainable and meaningful future scenarios. Also in Copenhagen, Google has just opened a physical learning space in partnership with the local government body. The ambition to make the public more digitally savvy. And the more obvious - Today at Apple sessions have become an important part of Apple’s new retail philosophy. With the tagline ‘Do more of what you love’, being a direct reaction to the transformation economy; where we align with brands that help us connect to more of ourselves.
Merging real and digital in new types of destinations
As people are expecting experiences to make a genuine impact in their daily lives, institutions ‘of the past’ are having to re-position themselves in order to compete with online worlds.
Originally (in the late 19th century), department stores laid the foundations for the early retail model. They defined city life, and became a place were people came to socialize. With the digital evolution, it became urgent to rethink the future retail model. Inspiring new spaces are emerging from these shifts, marrying our basic need for social connection with technological advancements. For example, Saint Petersburgs’ Au Pont Rouge has restored itself as a light, friendly and ‘natural’ retail space around an open high-tech robotic system.
“Department stores aren’t dead. Just the bad ones are.” Marc Metrick, president of Saks, GQ Gentlemen’s Quartlerly USA, April 2017
Libraries are another destination-type struggling to survive. In efforts to become more attractive and adaptable, entire new buildings are taking shape to provide the public with new means of accessing knowledge and inspiration (whilst being highly Instagramable). With it’s close to 3000 public libraries, China is paving the way for libraries of the future. Tanjin Binhai Library is a wildly futuristic, yet welcoming building alluding to a giant eye onto the world. Also worth exploring is book retailer Zongshue, feeding our imaginations with stores stacked with wonder and play.
Digital can never replace Social
With brand destinations containing art galleries, bookstores and cafes, emphasis is first and foremost on social connection (both within the space, and to the surrounding community).
A physical manifestation of the Samsung Brand, 837 is a flagship destination merging social and digital, aiming towards nothing less than ‘to make a difference in the lives of many’.
Defining itself as a fully immersive cultural center, this environment goes beyond Samsung’s devices, featuring auditoriums, art installations, music studios, workshops, etc. No matter the content, 837 cleverly links directly back to Samsung’s products. An example of this is a talk on plant-based meats, hosted in partnership with Impossible Foods: “Learn how Impossible Foods is setting out to make delicious meats that are good for people and the planet. Experience how the Galaxy S9 and the Samsung S-Health app can help you feel your best.”
Summary
We’re aware of the urgency to rethink traditional institutional models, as well as the future retail model. Brands are adapting by creating shops that are meant for everything but buying. And while the future of retail is no doubt high-tech, it’s evident that digital will not be replacing social. The most engaging environments emerging today are those where technology is seamless, silent and friendly, and where the brand manages to affect and transform - connecting us to more of ourselves.
— — —
